Month: December 2009

Tom Greene (Astrophysics Branch) Tom Roellig and Tom Greene attended a meeting of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) science team in Palo Alto, CA on December 14 and 15. NIRCam is gearing up for testing its engineering unit in Palo Alto. Both are also working on defining NIRCam guaranteed time observations […]

ennifer Heldmann (SST) on Detail to HQ: Ames Scientist Interviewed About Contamination Rules. NPR (2/6, Flatow), in “Talk of the Nation,” interviewed Christopher McKay of the Ames Research Center on revising the rules on interplanetary contamination. McKay said, “I think COSPAR, which is the international organization that implements these policies, should have a conference – […]

Tori Hoehler (SSX): Tori Hoehler was a speaker/panelist at a public event at Chabot Space & Science Center. Hoehler and UC Berkeley professor Gibor Basri provided astrobiology and astronomy perspectives, respectively, as they interacted with a live audience to explore the subject of extrasolar planets. The panel discussion was the culmination of a night-long series […]

Jesse Bregman (SSA): Farid Salama was has affirmed his appointment as a member of an Astro2010 Infrastructure Study Group. Tom Greene (SSA): – Tom Greene attended a meeting of the Keck Observatory Science Steering Committee (SSC) in Waimea, HI on February 18 and 19. He and Rachel Akeson, the other NASA Keck SSC representative, are […]

Space Science & Astrobiology Division Highlights week ending 03/13/09 Scott Sandford (Astrophysics Branch SSA): Dr. Scott Sandford made a presentation on the final Comet Coma Rendezvous and Sample Return (CCRSR) concept mission at NASA Headquarters on Friday, February 27. The CCRSR is one of the missions being studied under the Discovery and Scout Mission Capabilities […]

Bob Haberle (Planetary Systems Branch / SST): Bob Haberle attended a Mars Meteorology Network meeting at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, CO last week (3/10-12). The purpose of the meeting was to reassess the value of network meteorological missions to Mars. The product of the workshop will be a white paper that will provide […]

Scott Sandford (Astrophysics Branch / SSA): Scientists from NASA-Ames’ Astrochemistry Laboratory, Scott Sandford, Stefanie Milam, and Michel Nuevo, were coauthors on a paper entitled “The impact and recovery of asteroid 2008 TC3” that appeared in the 26 March 2009 issue of Nature. The paper’s authors describe the discovery of a small asteroid, 2008 TC3, on […]

Dale Cruikshank (Astrophysics Branch / SSA): Dr. Cruikshank has accepted an invitation to participate in the Steering Group of the Planetary Decadal Survey that will establish priorities in Solar System missions and related research for the next decade. The Survey is an activity of the National Research Council (Space Studies Board) of the National Academy […]

Farid Salama (Astrophysics Branch / SSA): Farid Salama (SSA) was invited to serve on the Science Organizing Committee (SOC) and the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of the 10th International Colloquium on Atomic Spectra and Oscillator Strengths (ASOS) for Astrophysical and Laboratory Plasmas to be held in Berkeley in August 2010. The ASOS meeting has been […]

On April 16-17, 2009, Nathan Bramall, Carol Stoker, and Jhony Zavaleta successfully tested the Miniaturized Biospectral Logger, a borehole fluorescence-detection instrument tuned to detect proteins. The instrument is only 5.1 cm in diameter and 1.4 m long but is sensitive to a single bacterium on a clay mineral background without the use of any consumables. […]